As traders’ concerns about regional banking sector contagion resurfaced ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate announcement, stocks fell on Tuesday.
Before the Fed’s rate decision, the Dow drops more than 300 points as concerns about the banking sector resurface.
To finish at 33,684.53, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 367.17 points, or 1.08%. S&P 500 ended the day at 4,119.58, down 1.16%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.08% and closed the trading day at 12,080.51. For the second straight session, the three major averages declined.
The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF fell more than 6% as bank shares fell. After the crisis that engulfed Wall Street in March and resulted in the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank, traders began to doubt the stability of smaller regional financial institutions. PacWest and Western Alliance, two regional banks, saw declines of 27% and 15%, respectively.
